Its still cool and appreciated. 

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brett Shirley
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2005 10:55 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Documenting AD

I shot this off w/o much forethought, the /d is fairly AD replication
oriented, and clearly not a complete picture.

People have pointed out lots of other stuff, schema, trusts, etc ... good
thread.

Cheers,
-BrettSh [msft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
 

On Thu, 13 Oct 2005, Brett Shirley wrote:

> 
> There is an undocumented switch "/d" in dcdiag that spills out a bunch 
> of quasi formated output for the forest.  Useful for collecting most 
> of the forest info at once, I've had PSS send me the output, when 
> diagnosing customer issues.
> 
> This is basically debugging (/d) information off the internal view of 
> your forest that dcdiag builds when it runs, and as such it is likely 
> to change or expand at any time.
> 
> Cheers,
> -BrettSh [msft]
> 
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no 
> rights.
> 
> 
> On Thu, 13 Oct 2005, Almeida Pinto, Jorge de wrote:
> 
> > What could be interesting is just having the information, not how it 
> > is presented. For the documentation of the site and replication 
> > topology (and of course others like OUs structure, members of 
> > powerfll groups, etc.) you could use something like ADFIND. OK, the 
> > presentation of it may not be the most beautifull for documentation 
> > but it could be used
> >  
> > my EUR 0,00000002
> >  
> > Cheers,
> >  
> > Jorge
> >  
> > ADFIND: http://www.joeware.net/win/free/tools/adfind.htm
> > determine sites:
> > adfind -config -f "(objectClass=site)" -dn determine subnets and 
> > associated subnets:
> > adfind -config -f "(objectClass=subnet)" distinguishedname 
> > siteobject determine properties of the intersite transports adfind 
> > -config -f "(objectClass=interSiteTransport)"
> > determine site links and associated sites:
> > adfind -config -f "(objectClass=sitelink)" distinguishedname 
> > sitelist determine all Site link bridges and its properties adfind 
> > -config -f "(objectClass=siteLinkBridge)"
> > determine all NTDS Site Settings objects for each site and its 
> > properties adfind -config -f "(objectClass=nTDSSiteSettings)"
> > determine all NTDS Settings objects for each DC and its properties 
> > adfind -config -f "(objectClass=nTDSDSA)"
> > determine all replication connections and its properties adfind 
> > -config -f "(objectClass=nTDSConnection)"
> > 
> > ________________________________
> > 
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Peter Johnson
> > Sent: Thu 10/13/2005 11:36 AM
> > To: [email protected]
> > Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Documenting AD
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Also you IP subnets to Site Mappings need to be documented. I.E. a 
> > list of all IP subnets and what site in Active Directory Sites and 
> > services they belong to.
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rocky 
> > Habeeb
> > Sent: 12 October 2005 18:27
> > To: [email protected]
> > Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Documenting AD
> > 
> > [Brett]  >>  "spending time working on AD > Replication, AD 
> > backup/restore"
> > Did you create ASR and will a DC who "masters changes" (per joe's
> > comments) and who goes down and has to be rebuilt via ASR have the 
> > USN rollback problems you guys are talking about?
> > 
> > [Hint] "Keep it simple."  Some of us cannot follow all of this 
> > because you guys are so far out there, we couldn't track you even 
> > with the Hubble telescope.
> > 
> > Just tell me my ASRs are OK
> > 
> > RH
> > ____________________________________________________________________
> > ____
> > _______
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of 
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2005 11:42 AM
> > To: [email protected]
> > Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] Documenting AD
> > 
> > 
> > Additional components:
> > =================
> > Schema
> > Database
> > Administrative support model
> > Domain controller spec
> > DC/GC placement
> > Exchange topology and design
> > DNS design (zone type, placement etc etc) SYSVOL/FRS DFS
> > 
> > Administration:
> > ===========
> > User and group admin and tools
> > DC admin/support and tools
> > Forest admin and ownership
> > GPO admin and tools
> > 
> > I'll stop there and let others chime in...
> > 
> > neil
> > 
> > ___________________________
> > Neil Ruston
> > Global Technology Infrastructure
> > Nomura International plc
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tim Sutton
> > Sent: 12 October 2005 16:28
> > To: [email protected]
> > Subject: [ActiveDir] Documenting AD
> > 
> > Hey all,
> > 
> > Being the local bod with AD knowledge at work I've been "volunteered"
> > the job of documenting our domain (possibly more than one if this 
> > goes well). Whilst being a good little job it has already caused me 
> > a few problems, mainly just how much detail to put in, so I thought 
> > I'd ask for some pearls of wisdom from you guys. What do you lot do? 
> > How do you go about it? etc
> > 
> > so far I'm thinking along these lines:
> > - a general AD layout diagram detailing the OU structure - Visio 
> > will be the weapon of choice I think
> > - list all GPO's, where they're linked to and what they do etc
> > - a breakdown of sites and their links
> > - a breakdown of replication settings
> > - listing of service accounts with descriptions and reasons for 
> > existence (maybe?)
> > - trusts between any other domains
> > - detail FSMO roles
> > 
> > ... and that's kinda where I run out of ideas lol
> > 
> > what do you'll reckon? Have I missed or gone overboard on anything?
> > 
> > if I've got the time I'd like to try and script as much of this as 
> > possible, but if anyone knows of something that does some / all of 
> > this, please let me know before I kill myself scripting all night :D 
> > lol
> > 
> > Cheers :)
> > 
> > 
> > For Troup Bywaters + Anders    
> > 
> > Tim Sutton             
> > 
> > T: +44 (0) 113 243 2241
> > F: +44 (0) 113 242 4024                
> > E: [EMAIL PROTECTED]         
> > W: www.TBandA.com                              
> > 
> > Eastgate House
> > 10 Eastgate                                    
> > Leeds
> > LS2 7JL
> > Office Location Map    
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: David Adner [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Sent: 06 May 2005 20:21
> > To: [email protected]
> > Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] best practice? (aka: USN rollback 
> > discussion and why it's a bad idea to image DC's for recovery 
> > purposes)
> > 
> > Since no one referenced them during this thread... For a bit more 
> > detail on the subject, check these out.
> > 
> > How to detect and recover from a USN rollback in Windows Server 2003
> > http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=875495
> > 
> > How to detect and recover from a USN rollback in Windows 2000 Server
> > http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=885875
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brett 
> > > Shirley
> > > Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 13:19
> > > To: [email protected]
> > > Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] best practice?
> > >
> > >
> > > I don't really have serious time to answer this right now ...
> > >  so for now, you're going to have to trust me, it's not just a 
> > > little bad you can recover from it with X, it is _really_ bad to 
> > > do an image based restore, and hard to restore normality afterwards
...
> > >
> > > I'll prop a portion of a slide deck later on, where I show to the 
> > > backup vendors how the inconsistency is introduced ...
> > > but I don't know if it will make sense w/o my delivery.  It is 
> > > also a bit simplified.  joe is close below, some comments inline, 
> > > in joe's mail, as it's the closest so far to understanding why this is
bad ...
> > >
> > > BTW, clean and dirty AD DB have _nothing_ to do with this.
> > > clean/dirty is an ESE / JET Blue level concept, this is an 
> > > entirely AD
> > 
> > > Logical issue.
> > > Nothing prevents an ESE database from being imaged.  The AD has a 
> > > design decision that prevents image based restores.
> > >
> > > I don't play XBox or any computer games really.  I know that 
> > > sounds weird, that a computer geek would not play video games, but 
> > > I met a girl at a party the other day who is a huge FPS player, so 
> > > I think the
> > 
> > > world somehow balances out in that respect.  How could that 
> > > compare to
> > 
> > > the relaxing sense of accomplishment of working out paticularly 
> > > cunning methods of compressing replication metadata ... I mean really?
> > 
> > > Same goes for hair maintanence tasks.
> > >
> > > On Thu, 5 May 2005, joe wrote:
> > >
> > > > I am actually waiting for Brett or ~Eric to respond to your post 
> > > > as well. I am positive they could give you a bulleted list of
> > > things that
> > > > you as well as the rest of us are completely unaware of
> > > that will go
> > > > pear shaped both because they have seen things like that or
> > > just know
> > > > it from familiarity with the code paths involved.
> > > >
> > > > AD will not do a complete reload of the DB on its own, that
> > > was an NT4
> > > > thing that occurred if the change log rolled. All gone now.
> > > >
> > > > Do some searching on DSA IDs/GUIDs and Invocation
> > > IDs/GUIDS. A DSA ID
> > > > is the GUID for the DC itself[1], it doesn't change for the life 
> > > > of the DC from my understanding. The invocation GUID[2] changes 
> > > > on restores, again to flag, hey new DB,
> > >
> > > [BrettSh] It's not a new DB so much, as a new logical stream of 
> > > changes to the distributed system ...
> > >
> > > >  ... you don't know what my state is, so it can be brought into 
> > > > a consistent state.
> > >
> > > [BrettSh] Don't like the term "consistent state" here.  I also 
> > > don't like how we're talking about the DB ... I know all the AD 
> > > repl docs, talked about it as a new database GUID, but that was poor
taste ...
> > > there is a subtle but key difference between
> > >
> > >       [local] database consistency, and
> > >       distributed system consistency.
> > >
> > > It's the later we're worried about.  +The later requires multiple 
> > > nodes / DCs to have followed all the rules.+  Most of the rules 
> > > are coded into the way AD behaves, when possible.  Thou shalt not 
> > > image restore, is unfortunately not coded, and hard to be 
> > > defensible against
> > 
> > > ... well, without sacraficing availability ... but lets not get 
> > > into that trade-off right now.
> > >
> > > > You should find hits on invocation id with topics of replication 
> > > > consistency, usn polling, AD restores, etc as it is key to
> > > all of them
> > > > though it has been awhile since I went searching for that stuff.
> > > > Something I have read on a couple of occasions but can't
> > > say I agree
> > > > with is that allegedly the DSA ID and invocation id are 
> > > > identical unless a restore has occurred. I don't think I have 
> > > > EVER seen them identical so I don't know where that info came 
> > > > from. I am noting it simply because I recall seeing 
> > > > documentation to that effect
> > > in the past.
> > >
> > > [BrettSh] They should've been the same until the first restore ...
> > > there is a bug somewhere, that no one bothered to iron out.
> > >
> > > BTW, we also change the InvocationID when we _re_-host an 
> > > Application Directory Partition ... I'll leave the discussion of 
> > > why to your imagination.
> > >
> > > Oh and since IFM is like throwing AD Restore and dcpromo into a 
> > > blender for 30 seconds, IFM based dcpromo sort of changes the 
> > > InvocationID.
> > > You'll notice the invocationID of the DC you took the original 
> > > backup from in the retired DSA signature of the newly dcpromo'd DC.
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Really try to find detailed info on how replication works.
> > > High USN is
> > > > just the tip of the iceberg, there is a lot of underlying
> > > details but
> > > > I understand where the misconceptions can come in, a lot of the 
> > > > documentation out there in the public realm simplifies the
> > > crap out of
> > > > this stuff with analogies and very high level details without 
> > > > ever indicating that it is really quite more involved than that.
> > > This can
> > > > burn you when you start making decisions based on those
> > > simplified examples.
> > > >
> > > > If you really want to get into it, start fishing through
> > > the platform
> > > > sdk
> > > > Ds* API calls. I would especially recommend the
> > > > DsGetDCInfo/DsGetDcInfo2 functions and out of those the ones 
> > > > concerning DS_REPL_NEIGHBOR structures which gives a feeling of 
> > > > how much info there is involved with replication and consistency.
> > > >
> > > > While it may be possible to force the invocationid to
> > > change after the
> > > > image restore, I am not aware of a method other than doing
> > > a proper DB
> > > > restore. It could be as simple as tapping that attribute in the 
> > > > nTDSDSA object but I certainly would NOT be willing to test that 
> > > > in production even if it worked great in the lab.
> > >
> > > [BrettSh]
> > >
> > >       Plausible Proposal #1: (please see big warning below)
> > >       _Technically_, yes if you trigger an Invocation ID change after
> > >       you lay down the image, _AND THIS IS THE KEY_ ... before the DC
> > >       talks to any other DCs, and takes any new changes to the
> > database.
> > >
> > >               This is one of those rules that all the nodes must
> > follow,
> > >               and if you use an AD based backup/restore program, the
> > >               appropriate logic will be triggered, and the rules for
> > >               distributed consistency upheld.
> > >
> > >       _Even_ booting the DC, may institute a change, that causes
> > >       distributed system inconsistency.  Obviously, tapping the object
> > >       from LDAP is not an option, you have to do it from DSRM.
> > >       Unfortunately, I've forgotten to tell you how you can trigger a
> > >       invocation ID change from DSRM ...
> > >
> > > In short don't go there. These are not the droids you're looking for.
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Certainly, do not image DCs and use that as a recovery
> > > mechanism. The
> > > > one way to do that, IMO, would involve snap shooting and
> > > rolling back
> > > > all DCs in a forest at the same time. I don't see how this could 
> > > > effectively be done in the real world on real hardware. I 
> > > > visualize possibilities with virtualization software, but that 
> > > > would
> > > require a
> > > > lot of testing and work to get there and some how guarantee
> > > that the
> > > > snapshot was done at the exact time for all images.
> > >
> > > [BrettSh]
> > >
> > >       Plausible Proposal #2: (please see the big warning below)
> > >       _Technically_, this will work too.  Requires all DCs to be 
> > > off
> > at
> > >       the same time when you take the image based back ups (I 
> > >       think).  Requires all the existing DCs to be turned off before
> > >       you restart the first restored image.  I think that is all that
> > >       is required ... but I'm not sure ... I don't care enough to try
> > >       to give anyone
> > >
> > >       Plausible Proposal #3: (please see the big warning below)
> > >       Of course a single DC forest can be image based restored as
> > well,
> > >       though ... you're more likely to get SIDs reissued, and have old
> > >       wacky ACLs in this case, b/c IIRC we invalidate the present RID
> > >       pool on restore.  This can be mitigated by booting the DC, and
> > >       before creating any security principals, booting the next 
> > > rid
> > up,
> > >       can't remember how that is done off the top of my head 
> > > though
> > ...
> > >
> > > >
> > > > If you have done this in production already, I would
> > > recommend going
> > > > back to what Brett said and doing a verification of your DB
> > > on all of your DCs.
> > >
> > > [BrettSh] Jeez, I really hope no one is in this state, it can be 
> > > quite
> > 
> > > disturbing to iron out.
> > >
> > > > Again, Brett is someone who knows about the AD DB. Don't let his 
> > > > sometimes grouchy demeanor throw you off. He may get difficult 
> > > > at times but he is almost always trying to help, he just has
> > > interesting
> > > > ways of expressing it on occasion. He has actually been
> > > extremely nice
> > > > on this list compared to some other notes I have seen from him.
> > >
> > > [BrettSh] I thought I was being nice ... wow, it's going to suck, 
> > > when
> > 
> > > someone actually annoys me. ;)
> > >
> > > >  Basically I say the same about him that I have often said about 
> > > > myself; don't mistake the
> > > quality of the
> > > > delivery for the quality of the information. :o)
> > >
> > > [BrettSh]
> > >
> > > So first let me divulge, that I am not in fact the Garage Door 
> > > Operator for building 7, in fact I am a developer/programmer 
> > > (we're call Software Development Engineers at Microsoft) in 
> > > Windows, ON Active Directory.
> > > Before my recent move to the ESE development, I worked on the AD 
> > > Replication development for ~5.5 years, spending time working on 
> > > AD Replication, AD backup/restore, a small bit in AD 
> > > Schema/Database stuff, AD tools, and even dabbling in DcPromo off 
> > > and on when required
> > 
> > > for those years.  Quite frankly I'm the one who has dealt with 
> > > almost all the areas affected by a bad image based backup/restore, 
> > > and the parts that make a good backup/restore possible.  I'm 
> > > uniquely qualified to say:
> > >       Image based backup/restores are not supported for AD.
> > >
> > > So we had this customer who wanted to use SAN based hot split on 
> > > Win2k
> > 
> > > AD (which is even more unsupported, as they didn't shutdown all 
> > > the DCs, like Plausible Proposal #2 above), after explaining that 
> > > they'd have to shutdown all DCs, and them agreeing (though I 
> > > doubted they'd actually do that, it's amazing what customers will 
> > > do when they think they understand better than you) and then they 
> > > agreed for restore, they'd take ALL the DCs back to the same 
> > > backup time, at the same time, and working out this complicated 
> > > set of steps they would need, I
> > 
> > > pointed out this:
> > >
> > > --- begin quote ---
> > > I can't confirm if you will fail ..., but that set of steps if 
> > > correctly followed will not cause forest corruption due to USN 
> > > rollback.  Honestly, it isn.t worrying about this once PSS guided 
> > > transition that worries me, following those types of steps once 
> > > isn't hard . it is someone not understanding why each of the parts 
> > > of the technique were required, and later trying it again, and not 
> > > getting it
> > 
> > > right.  In general customers may not truly understand the system's 
> > > requirements, EVEN after they say they do (b/c they believe they 
> > > do, no one intentionally hoses their domain, but somehow it 
> > > happens) so it's just easier to say "no mirror splits on unsupported
SANs"
> > > --- end quote ---
> > >
> > > So ....
> > >
> > >  Warning!  Warning!  Danger Will Robinson!  Danger!
> > >
> > > So the same goes for all 3 proposals above ... while technically 
> > > you could work out the exact set of steps required, it is likely 
> > > to be an error prone manual process ... will the next guy who 
> > > maintains the corp infrastructure understand it all ... will you 
> > > miss a step ... if you have lots of DCs in branches, how do you 
> > > know one won't be missed ... you're playing with fire ... and the 
> > > slightest tweaks can change the answer substantially, for instance 
> > > auth restore for proposal #1 must be done after triggering the 
> > > invocation ID to change, which would
> > 
> > > require a reboot ... even me with all my knowledge, wouldn't 
> > > implement
> > 
> > > such a mechanism in a live corporate deployment ... it's subtle, 
> > > and it is not worth the risk.
> > >
> > > Friends don't let friends use image based backups of AD.
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > -Brett [msft]
> > > I'm just kidding, I just made all the above up, I really am just 
> > > the Building 7 Garage Door Operator ...
> > >
> > >
> > > >
> > > >    joe
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > [1] It is the objectGUID attribute of the ntdsdsa object(aka 
> > > > NTDS Settings object).
> > > > [2] It is the invocationID attribute of the ntdsdsa object.
> > > >
> > > > 
> > > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bahta 
> > > > Nathaniel V Contr NASIC/SCNA
> > > > Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 10:22 AM
> > > > To: [email protected]
> > > > Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] best practice?
> > > >
> > > > Joe,
> > > >
> > > > I appreciate you indulging me in detail.  I was just
> > > curious on what
> > > > the consequences may be of imaging and restoring DC's.  We
> > > are always
> > > > evaluating and re-evaluating DR methods and techniques, and
> > > this was
> > > > the latest hot topic.  I thought AD pushed changes up to a 
> > > > pre-determined amount and then it would just replicate the whole 
> > > > database if the number of changes were too great.  I am not sure 
> > > > of the in-depth implications of restoring imaged DC's but I know 
> > > > the difference between a clean and dirty AD DB and it sounds as
> > > though the
> > > > metadata cleanup and synchronization is not meant to happen
> > > with an AD
> > > > unaware application such as ghost.  Perhaps an application
> > > that could
> > > > stabilize an old DC with the new AD DB would be something
> > > that would
> > > > have to be looked at.  Or maybe an image of a member server and 
> > > > a dcpromo is the easiest way to recover a DC.  I have
> > > intentions on working smarter, not harder, but that does not forgo 
> > > my lust for understanding right from wrong.
> > > >
> > > > Thanks again for the rebuttal.  It always helps to hear things 
> > > > from all perspectives to get a better look at the big picture.
> > > >
> > > > Nathaniel
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of joe
> > > > Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 2:36 PM
> > > > To: [email protected]
> > > > Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] best practice?
> > > >
> > > > I'm not Brett[1] but wanted to just say something really
> > > quick here.
> > > >
> > > > Well a couple of things actually.
> > > >
> > > > 1. When it comes to AD Database consistency and
> > > replication. Brett is
> > > > someone I would tend to listen to very carefully. I may not
> > > understand
> > > > what he is trying to say but I will try like heck to understand it.
> > > > Rough around the edges though he may be, he knows a lot
> > > about the guts
> > > > of the AD DB and Replication. Keep in mind he wrote some of
> > > the most
> > > > "brilliant" parts of repadmin[2].
> > > >
> > > > 2. When you image and recover the image you are bypassing
> > > any and all
> > > > logic associated with a directory DB recovery. I.E. You aren't 
> > > > restoring the database through the very specific DS
> > > Backup/Restore API
> > > > so you don't get the cool things that it does like renaming the 
> > > > Database GUID aka invocation ID which effectively tells all
> > > of the other partners there is a "different"
> > > > database out here that needs to be fully updated.
> > > >
> > > > I haven't fully thought out the implications of that but one 
> > > > thing right off the bat is the thought that all DCs maintain 
> > > > high water vectors for all databases so they know where they are 
> > > > at for replication. This isn't just kept on the DC in question,
> > > this is kept
> > > > all over so I could see serious possibilities of issues there.
> > > > Additionally think of a change that mastered on that database 
> > > > and replicated out. How do you get it back if the DB is rolled 
> > > > back and all of the other DCs already think that DB has that 
> > > > info
> > > since it was mastered there?
> > > >
> > > > You get ~Eric, Dean, and Brett thinking about it and I expect 
> > > > you could find all sorts of horrible things that this can do to you.
> > > >
> > > > I think the idea that a DC can be restored from an image like 
> > > > that because it is "sort" of like restoring the DB is flawed at 
> > > > the very best. You don't have a full comprehension of what is 
> > > > being
> > > done in the
> > > > backend to support that restore. If it were that simple,
> > > why do you need a backup api at all?
> > > > Mirror the DIT and zip it and there is your backup... It
> > > doesn't work
> > > > that way.
> > > >
> > > > As Brett indicated... Bad mojo... Heck I will go further,
> > > positively evil.
> > > > You could damage your AD in ways that you (and it) has no
> > > clue about
> > > > and only later run into it when you are trying to figure
> > > out niggling
> > > > consistency issues in applications that act odd some of the time.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >    joe
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > [1] And I couldn't play him on TV either, Brett stores a
> > > good portion
> > > > of his height in his hair and I store mine in my legs.
> > > >
> > > > [2] His words when I met him in person at an MVP summit. He
> > > was quite
> > > > excited to talk about that portion of the code...
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bahta 
> > > > Nathaniel V Contr NASIC/SCNA
> > > > Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 1:59 PM
> > > > To: [email protected]
> > > > Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] best practice?
> > > >
> > > > Brett,
> > > >
> > > > What is your basis for not being able to restore a DC from
> > > a image?
> > > > If the DC has an old copy of the directory data, it will check 
> > > > its USN's and update its copy.  What could cause havok if 
> > > > anything?  We are about to institute this very same concept here 
> > > > to turn
> > > DR into a
> > > > 10 minute process when it comes to operating system
> > > recovery.  We will
> > > > image the servers monthly and restore from said image whenever 
> > > > one crashes.  What could cause a problem by restoring a DC, it 
> > > > will be timestamped to be old and AD will synchronize it with 
> > > > the
> > > rest of the domain.
> > > >
> > > > Please elaborate on your basis for comment.
> > > >
> > > > Nathaniel Bahta
> > > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
> > > Brett Shirley
> > > > Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 11:47 AM
> > > > To: [email protected]
> > > > Subject: RE: [ActiveDir] best practice?
> > > >
> > > > jlc,
> > > >
> > > > You can't restore a single DC via an image based backup,
> > > either.  It
> > > > is not supported, it is not allowed ... it is bad mojo.
> > > >
> > > > Well, it wouldn't cause issues if the forest had ONLY that one 
> > > > DC (seems unlikely the case), or for a multi-DC forest, you'd 
> > > > have to shutdown all the DCs in the forest at the same time, 
> > > > when
> > > you took your backup images.
> > > > And then on restore, restore them all at the same time.
> > > Basically a
> > > > pretty infeasible suggestion.
> > > >
> > > > Cheers,
> > > > -Brett Shirley [msft]
> > > >
> > > > This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
> > > confers no rights.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On Wed, 4 May 2005, Joseph L. Casale wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Exactly, I do it for DR purposes, the old one dies - I reimage 
> > > > > it and put it back out there.
> > > > > No poblem...
> > > > > jlc
> > > > >
> > > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
> > > Phil Renouf
> > > > > Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 7:01 AM
> > > > > To: [email protected]
> > > > > Subject: Re: [ActiveDir] best practice?
> > > > >
> > > > > On 5/4/05, John Shukovsky Jr
> > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > > > > BUT....as for DC's. I do "image" dc's using Symantec 
> > > > > > Livestate Recovery ( formerly PowerQuest V2i ). It works 
> > > > > > wonderfully. I primarily use for backups. I have not had to 
> > > > > > recover a
> > > server in
> > > > > > production ( and hope I do not have to ) but I have in lab 
> > > > > > 10+ times
> > > > > and servers are as clean as ever.
> > > > > > You should take a look.
> > > > >
> > > > > When Brett mentioned imaging DCs being a bad idea and to
> > > never ever
> > > > > do it I believe that he was meaning don't Image a DC and
> > > try to use
> > > > > that Image to build other new DCs and just trying to
> > > change the SID
> > > > > like you would for a desktop. Bad idea!
> > > > >
> > > > > Phil
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